My mom's first train ride into the city!

On Thursday July 1, mom and Aunt Nancy came up for a visit. Not only did they get to see the new place, meet the cat, and eat our food, but Friday we rode the train to Chicago.

We spent the day shopping (what else?) and had a blast! I took them to Michigan Ave, and we had pizza at Giordano's. I think the most memorable part of the day was running for fifteen minutes to get to the train station! We made it, and had fun running through the city like lunatics!


Unfortunately, Aunt Nancy had the pictures of us, so I wasn't able to load those!

An interesting article

For anyone that knows me, or has ever had dinner with me, you know that I am a picky eater. I eat a very small number of foods. People have often said, "Just try things, you'll like them." That never really worked out so well for me. You see, if I put a food item in my mouth that I don't like there is no just forcing it down. It comes right back out in a most unpleasant manner.

Anyway, my mother-in-law, Debbie showed me this article about people that eat almost exactly like me to a "T". You can read that article here. While I am not ready to jump on the bandwagon just yet, I am relieved to know that there are others out there like me. I am not just super weird! It does give me hope that one day there may be a treatment, or means of help for picky people like me!

School's out for Summer!

While for Michael school is out FOREVER, for me school's out for summer.

I'm not sure if I let everyone in on this or not, but I started back to school this summer. I only took one class, Spanish 2. I anticipate a VERY high grade since my two test scores were both A's.

I am so glad to be getting back into the school thing for two reasons:

1. When Michael & I got engaged, and subsequently married before my degree was finished I kept getting these looks of "She won't go back." I kind of am excited about proving that stereotype wrong.

2. I love learning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel so blessed that I am able to go back to school! I will continue in my pursuit of a Bachelor's degree in Communication Studies. I am a little more than halfway through right now. YAY!

Shout out to Grandma Patty

This blog post is especially for Grandma Patty aka Pat Brown.

Grandma Patty has long been one of my favorite people. Her granddaughter, Alyssa Brown & I are friends although we rarely see one another. However, it seemed that during mine and Alyssa's middle school years that we were inseparable. Nearly every weekend Grandma Patty, Grammy Hammy aka Doris Hammond, Alyssa, and I would go shopping together.

Naturally, since we shopped together these two ladies stole my heart :-)

I love you Grandma Patty, and hope you enjoy the updates to come!

The Carusos came for a visit :-)

This weekend Michael's mom and dad came up to check out our "new digs" in Crown Point, IN. For those who don't know where Crown Point is geographically, I'll fill you in. Crown Point is in the FAR Northeastern part of Indiana. It is 30 minutes from Indiana Dunes State Park, 45 minutes from downtown Chicago, and is 4hrs 15 minutes from Charlestown.
Back to the weekend...

We made calzones and took a walk around the Crown Point square on Friday night.
Saturday we headed to the lakefront attraction in Chicago, Navy Pier. The water was gorgeous, and we took the opportunity to get some good photos in.

Look at that skyline!!!

Me, Joe, Debbie

Michael, Joe, Debbie

Michael and me waiting for our table.

Debbie & Joe in front of the skyline!

Awesome pet accessories!

We have quickly come to find some great new kitty tools. The pledge fur grabber as I call it is amazing at getting fur off of anything. We have a micro-fiber couch, as well as micro-fiber chairs. Templeton LOVES to sit on those chairs and this thing gets every piece of fur off!



This litter pan looks normal, huh? It is far from ordinary though. When one goes to clean it out, instead of scooping you roll it. The idea is you roll the top to the bottom. Then, roll it back to right side up and remove the tray that sits off to the side. The tray has the gross stuff in it. You simply pull the tray out and dump it. This litter pan was made for slightly OCD people such as myself. I will never have a normal litter pan again!

Right side up (sorry you can see kitty stuff in this pic)

Up side down

Remove tray and dump!

The best part is...I have not smelled anything gross as of yet!

New bedding for the new furniture

Michael and I are tired...tired of brown & black drabness. We decided that it was necessary to update our bedding from brown & cream to something that goes better with our new modern furniture!! We found a great deal on EXACTLY what we'd been looking for today.

New bedding

Notice the pattern in the comforter matches the pattern on my jewelry box.

We finally got all of the boxes out of our new office! Looks great!

Couldn't resist taking one of Templeton!